After throwing up twice on the court, Frances Tiafoe says he was “very depleted” for the fifth set of a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 loss to Filip Krajinovic of Serbia on Monday in the first round of the French Open.
Tiafoe, the only American seeded in the men's draw at No. 32, was coming off his best Grand Slam showing, a quarterfinal run at the Australian Open.
The 21-year-old Tiafoe, who grew up in Hyattsville in Prince George’s County and trained at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, said he didn't think he had food poisoning because he felt fine before the match.
“Throwing up during the match isn't something that normally happens to me, and I threw up again when I went to the locker room after the third set,” said Tiafoe, now 0-4 at Roland Garros. “The fifth-set result obviously came to that because [I] was obviously very depleted and had nothing really in me. It was tough to end like that.”
In another instance of an American losing to a Serbian in five sets, Denis Kudla, a fellow JTCC alumnus, was beaten 6-0, 6-7 (7), 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 by Miomir Kecmanovic.